German composer of symphonic classical music of 19th Centuries. Brahms was born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg on. He received his first violin and cello lessons from his father, the bass player was on the municipal theater. Soon his talent was extraordinary pianistic recognizable. Under the guidance of his music teacher, Eduard Marxsen Brahms wrote his first compositions. 1853 Brahms went as a piano accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi on tour.

In this way, he met the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, with whom he concluded a lifelong friendship. Joachim turn, made him the composer Robert Schumann familiar with. Schumann was the then-unreleased compositions Brahms so impressed that he in a magazine article about him an enthusiastic wrote. Brahms felt a deep affection for Schumann and his wife Clara Josephine Schumann, a famous pianist. The friendship and encouragement, which he learned of them, gave Brahms oeuvre decisive impetus.

From 1857 to 1859 famous classical composers Brahms had a steady job as a choral conductor and Pianist at the Court Theater in Detmold. He then traveled for several years through Germany and Switzerland. His first publicly performed work is the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. It was premiered in Leipzig in 1859, but had no success because the audience the then popular virtuosity missing. A few years later, Brahms moved to Vienna, where he was director of the Academy of Music in 1863, this office, but resigned a year later. Brahms lived back then in Hamburg, where his professional requirements (transfer of the management of the Hamburg Academy of Music and the Philharmonic Orchestra) did not meet, however. Therefore, in 1868 he moved permanently to Vienna.

Early Works

The same year, Brahms was the premiere of his German Requiem at once famous throughout Europe with. The revolutionary innovation was to note that Brahms instead of the usual Latin text, the German Luther Bible translation is as the related (this is why the title: German Requiem). This work (seven parts) loses not in speculation about the fate of man after death, but focuses instead on the pain of the bereaved. Brahms was in 1871 by the Society of Friends of Music Concerts managing their transfer. He was also this place in 1875 on again in order to devote himself to composition. In the summer the lakes in the area from 1877 created some of the larger works.

Major works

The year 1873 marked a decisive turning point in Brahms work dar. Until then he had in fact mostly chamber music and compositions for his instrument, the piano, and choir and orchestra written for. This year he created with the Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn his first major symphonic work. The variations were Brahms masterful design development through to symphonic works. His symphonic masterpieces, the Symphony No.1 in C minor, op.68 (1876) and the Symphony No.2 in D major op.73 (1877), the Academic Festival Overture op.80 (1880), the Tragic Overture op .81 (1881), the Symphony No.3 in F major, op.90 (1883), and the Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op.98 (1885) have all extremely dense structure to one that is the tradition the Viennese classics is due. Unlike his contemporaries, Brahms was against the use of new harmonies and fashionable sounds just about the effect's sake. He was rather anxious to make a music that internal unity radiated by unusual formal means merely to illustrate the structural nuances began. In his most important works are found never superficial or put acting passages for each theme, each figure and each modulation serve the whole, they are prepared and form and content are both already included in the antecedent. Brahms own dealings with the tradition of that time was unique and totally contradicted the then trend, as it was expressed by Richard Wagner in particular. If Brahms with his symphonic tradition revived, since Ludwig van Beethoven no composer more had followed, so he was very rooted in his time. In addition to the study of Baroque music (Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Scarlatti) influenced his compositional style especially the folk song. Brahms collected folk songs all his life and worked on them. Its over 200 songs, including the gypsy songs as well as secular and sacred choral works are a remarkable repertoire dar.

Unfortunately little is Brahms's operation known about. His self-criticism was relentless, and he burned everything he had written before 1852 as well as some sketches of his later masterpieces. It is known that he often plays more than ten or 20 years, always new and revised them before they appeared in their final version, edited for many different instruments.

Great classical composers Brahms's major works include (among those) the Song of Destiny (1871), a setting of a poem of Friedrich Holderlin for chorus and orchestra, the Violin Concerto in D major (1878), the solid repertoire part of every violinist is considered, the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor (1887), the Clarinet Quintet (1891), three string quartets, three violin sonatas, numerous solo works for piano and other chamber works for various ensembles and eventually over 150 songs. Brahms died in Vienna on 13 April 1897.